Women's World Cup 2019

[Parasaurolophus]

It's on! It's happening! It's exciting!

Are you watching? Who are you cheering for? Let's talk soccer/football!

[backatit]

LOL, it's ALWAYS on at our house.

So yes, we're watching, and England all the way...fingers crossed.

The premiere league starts soon, then, and things will get serious. This is a good non-serious filler for between seasons, although I'm quite interested in some of the lower-level teams in the WWC.

[backatit]

LOL, it's ALWAYS on at our house.

So yes, we're watching, and England all the way...fingers crossed.

The premiere league starts soon, then, and things will get serious. This is a good non-serious filler for between seasons, although I'm quite interested in some of the lower-level teams in the WWC.

I don't know why the double post - I meant to edit and managed to quote - 1-0 now.

[Tenured_Feminist]

Eldest child will be home this weekend. Hoping we can watch a bit together.

[Parasaurolophus]

Alas, I have to be out and about today during Canada's game. Even worse, although I've got a subscription to RDS so that I can watch the games, they don't have any way of watching past games, only live ones. So I probably won't get to watch it at all, just the highlights. Bummer. :(

[wellfleet]

I'm watching Canada/New Zealand in Spanish, since Fox is full of US Open golf this weekend. One of the NZ players is down; I hope she'll be ok.

[backatit]

On the provider we're using (NBC Gold, to get the UK premiere games) we don't get the Canada game till tomorrow, so we'll have to watch it then (they are usually really good about carrying the games - I am really aggravated about this). I'm reading the match updates though.

[Parasaurolophus]

Plans fell through, so I caught the game. Much more exciting than Canada's showing against Cameroon!

Next question: how hard will team USA celebrate its goals tomorrow?

[Parasaurolophus]

Answer: not so hard that it's unseemly. At least, not yet.

It's not an especially pretty match, but the USA looks quite strong (I didn't catch their previous match). I'm looking forward to seeing them play against a more robust opponent.

[backatit]

The Chile team looked quite good - I was pleased with their play. The sun was a huge factor in that match, though. My partner put it this was - the game was Sun 2 USA 1. I was particularly impressed with Chile's goalkeeper after the 1/2 - of course they were outmatched but they kept on pushing and gave the USA a good match.

[Parasaurolophus]

Nigeria did a great job today, and that penalty on their keeper was pretty questionable. Yeah, fine, it's a new (bad!) rule. But her foot was hardly off the line, it had zero effect on the kick (which missed), and, crucially, the ref didn't call it at the time (nor is it clear that the VAR was consulted). The ref only called it after the penalty missed.

Also, what was up with the French medic groping the player at the end?

[kaysixteen]

Well, I gotta agree with Dan Shaughnessy in the Boston Globe yesterday, wben he criticized the US team for running up the score against Thailand, and for the over the top excessive gloating celebrations after the goals, even after our team hit 10 goals.

[backatit]

Thailand's strategy was so weak, that the only way the US could have stopped scoring was to basically try to NOT score, so I'm not so much faulting them for the score itself. If you contrast that to the US/Chile match, where Chile's defense was much stronger, even though their players are not nearly matched, you can see the difference. When the US initiated an offense system, the Chile players responded with a corresponding strategy, whereas Thailand kept playing the same strategy over and over again. They are not a pro team, and it showed.

Contrast the US players in that game, though, to the behavior of England in the England vs. San Marino Men's World Cup matches in the early 90's (I've linked one example below). England kicked them to the curb, often 9-0, but they handled it much differently - they were very quiet about it and almost sheepish, and after a goal, watch what happens - there is a little hand to hand (and maybe one quick hug), but no big celebration. They were almost embarrassed (and certainly subdued) that they were rousting them to that level. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwo3...9fU6Nh3znQn-BY

This is not the first time the US has faced criticism for their choreographed celebrations, and I think it's reflective of the difference in sport psychology between the US and the European teams, especially. It's not seen as sporting, in the UK especially, to trounce an opponent (you don't want to LOSE, of course, but sportsmanship and being an underdog are as valued as a winning season and there is a storied history of supporting losing clubs. The Premier system of teams rising and falling promotes that, because no matter how high you rise (unless you have the wealth of Man City), you could be down within a couple of bad seasons, so better not get too cocky.

[Parasaurolophus]

England-Japan was a very interesting game. Japan was great at creating breaks for itself, but never quite managed to follow through.

I see I missed some more pently-line drama in Scotland-Argentina.

[backatit]

I was flipping back and forth between the games - horrible, horrible game for Scotland, and I feel gutted for them. I'm not going to say much about the calls except that I am not happy with the way VAR is being applied here.

I'm really excited about the Japanese team; they have a very cool backstory, and a very cohesive team and it shows. They also have INCREDIBLE stamina - if we could have that for England...

Most of the players still only play part-time, and funding is very limited. I'm really hopeful, though, that Japan wins its bid to host the next WC :D. We aren't going to Quatar for the men's WC because of logistics, but I would love to go to the Women's WC particularly if it's in Japan.

The Guardian had a really nice article on the Japanese team before the game:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/when-saturday-comes-blog/2019/jun/10/womens-world-cup-rise-stall-football-japan